Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâne

Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâneo also known as CPBC, was founded in 1997 in Lisbon, Portugal by Vasco Wellenkamp and Graça Barroso as a repertory dance company whose purpose lies in constituting a forum for the creation of contemporary dance.

In April 1999, the Company obtained the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Municipalities of Lisbon and Cascais, and was invited to participate in the Festival of Niterói in Brasil to help celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Portuguese Discoveries. During the last decade, thanks to a repertoire created exclusively for the Company by its artistic director and outside choreographers, in collaboration with artists from different regions, and with a group of dancers who embodied exceptional technical and artistic abilities, CPBC acquired the uniqueness which earned its international renown on the contemporary dance scene. Among the many pieces which stand out in the repertoire, are dance works choreographed by Vasco Wellenkamp, Nils Christe, Henri Oguike, Gagik Ismailian, Darshan Singh Buhller, Jan Linkens and Pedro Goucha Gomes.

Besides from performing regularly in Lisbon, Cascais and the Lisbon metro area, the Company appears annually in programs throughout Portugal and is regularly invited by several international theaters, having performed in the following cities and countries among others:

Brasil’s Festivals of Niterói and Rio de Janeiro as well as in Curitiba; Italy’s Villa Massima Theater in Roma, Roman Amphitheater in Terni, Metropolitan Theater in Palermo and Toniolo Theater in Mestre; Spain’s Madrid en Danza 2002 Festival and Villa Cultural Center in Madrid, Valencia ‘s Principal Theater and Valladolid’s Calderon Theater; Austria’s capital city Vienna, Israel’s Tel Aviv Dance Festival as well as in Moscow, Estonia and Latvia.

CPBC also co-produced and performed the world premiere of “A Lua Vai pelo Céu com um Rapaz pela Mão”, a piece choreographed by Vasco Wellenkamp about the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca.

The company made its US debut at New York’s Joyce Theater in October 2004 with Amaramália, a 75-minute long work on taped fado songs by world renown singer Amália Rodrigues, a special program it was invited to bring back the following year to Brooklyn/NY, SUNY Purchase/NY and to The Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford, MA before returning to the Joyce Theater with a repertoire program in Spring 2007. Amaramália was also performed widely in Europe including in Germany’s cities of Ludwigshafen, Remscheid and Lörrach as well as at Luxembourg’s Théâtre de la Ville.

Upon invitation by Vasco Wellenkamp, Liliana Mendonça became in early 2008, along with Graça Barroso, the Company’s new Artistic Director. In addition to its international touring and in collaboration with the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, CPBC produces educational programs specifically geared to children’s and family audiences which it presents at schools along with a series of dance workshops.

Australian Dance Theatre is the pre-eminent contemporary dance company in Australia and has been producing consistently extraordinary new dance since it was formed in Adelaide in 1965. Under the artistic direction of Garry Stewart since 1999, the company has embarked on a distinctive artistic trajectory that has won the company numerous accolades praising Garry Stewart’s choreography [...]